May Day Demonstration in Madgeburg’s Luisenpark (1911)

This photograph shows a political gathering in Magdeburg’s Luisenpark on May Day or International Workers’ Day. The attendees wear bourgeois-respectable dress, creating the impression of a sea of hats. Although the crowd appears to consist mostly of men, many women and children—including some very young ones—are visible in the scene, especially toward the front. For some workers, labor activism was a family or community affair. Indeed, over the course of the Imperial period, or Kaiserreich, political activism and social life developed hand in hand.